Gov. Rick Perry is once again slamming “out-of-state interest groups” backing former solicitor general Ted Cruz in his runoff with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst –this time tweaking Sarah Palin, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and Rick Santorum by suggesting their states could learn a lot from Texas, but Texas doesn’t need their advice on choosing its next U.S. senator.

Perry, standing staunchly behind Dewhurst, brushed off the question about whether his own tea party credibility may be damaged by his opposition to Cruz, who has been endorsed by national conservative and tea party groups and figures (including Palin, DeMint and Santorum) in the runoff for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

“There’s a whole lot of people who don’t intimately and expertly know how Texas operates that have come in and endorsed in this race, and with all due respect – I respect each one of those individuals, but they don’t know anything about how Texas works,” said Perry after a hurricane preparedness tour at the Austin airport. “And if they did, they would be endorsing David Dewhurst.”

Without naming Palin, DeMint or Santorum, Perry called them to mind by naming their states: “I appreciate everybody paying attention to Texas – as well they should, they could learn some things on how to run South Carolina and Pennsylvania and Alaska.

“Come to Texas and learn how to do it right, but don’t come down here and tell us who needs to be our next United States senator, thank you very much. We’ll decide that without your outside, Washington, D.C.-oriented help,” Perry said.

Cruz spokesman James Bernsen said his candidate has overwhelming support among Texas grassroots conservatives, “most of whom Dewhurst has not even bothered to meet with.” And, he said, Cruz has “exponentially more Texas donors than David Dewhurst, including more donors from the Houston area than Dewhurst has in the entire state of Texas.”

UPDATE: Some people have written to note that Dewhurst is trumpeting his own out-of-state endorsement from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, so Perry’s outrage may be a bit selective.

Perry’s comments came the day after former ESPN football analyst Craig James (whocame in a distant fourth in the U.S. Senate GOP primary) endorsed Dewhurst, earning a “Congratulations to Lt. Gov. Dewhurst” from Bernsen.

His comments also came as Cruz pressed Dewhurst to debate, saying he’s accepted a proposal for a series of five debates to be hosted by the Grassroots Texans Network.

Dewhurst has repeatedly indicated his willingness to take Cruz up on a challenge for multiple debates before the July 31 runoff. His campaign said it’s looking at this invitation, which was signed by Ken Emanuelson.

Emanuelson, as highlighted on the anti-Dewhurst “Dewbious” site, was quoted in January as saying, David Dewhurst may be Texas grassroots enemy No. 1 right now.”